This is a civil rights nightmare. Alabama just took a major step to block Black residents from being able to vote.

Effective immediately, Alabama will stop issuing driver’s licenses in every county where 75% of registered voters are Black.1 This is a devastating blow to Alabama’s Black voters as Alabama is one of the 17 states that requires a photo ID to vote.

Voter ID laws already disenfranchise Black and low-income people by making voting extremely difficult and costly.2 Now Alabama has made it next to impossible for Black voters to get the necessary ID to vote.

We’re not going to sit idly by and let Alabama take away Black Americans’ right to vote. To make sure that Black Alabamians can exercise their sacred right to vote, we need to do everything in our power to help these people register to vote and fight against this civil rights nightmare.

This could be our biggest chance to do something. While a Department of Justice lawsuit against Alabama is likely, the lawsuit probably won’t have any impact on the 2016 election - leaving thousands of Black voters unable to exercise their most fundamental right.3But if we start ramping up our Get Out the Vote (GOTV) efforts now, we can help thousands of disenfranchised Black people vote.

We know how to lead a fight like this. When we went up against the right-wing policy group American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) for helping states pass discriminatory voter ID laws, nearly 70 of its funders cut ties with it. And during the last presidential election cycle, we pressured Clear Channel to remove voter fraud billboards placed in majority Black communities with the intention to scare Black voters and suppress the franchise. With your help, we can have the same impact for the 2016 election.

Alabama is not the first state--and it won’t be the last--to restrict the voting rights of Black Americans. This fall marks 10 years that ColorOfChange members have taken action to strengthen and amplify Black political power in America. In the coming days, you will receive a number of different fundraisers asking you to support the critical work of our community in the years ahead. We depend on you. Your donations allow us to be constantly prepared to run GOTV efforts in places where Black voting rights are restricted and to fight to protect voting rights across the country.

Brandi, Rashad, Arisha, Evan, Brittaney, and the rest of the ColorOfChange team.

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